Syncretism is the term that explains this best. The Romans had a habit if not entirely crushing the beliefs of the people they conquered, they just stuck their own on top of the local beliefs and brought some of those traditions back to rome.
Fast forward a long ass time and now most everyone has a winter soltice festival.
I came to a lot of peace with my childhood when I came to the realization that Christianity was at it’s best when it was syncretist. The Christians who I was able to get along with as a kid were always the ones my parents said weren’t real Christians because they “denied the divinity of Jesus” by not being trinitarian. They always spoke very poorly of the western mystery traditions and it was easy to see their viewpoint because they’re both graduate degree engineers so of course it was only logical. Realistically the people they were talking shit about were the ones who actually understood the point and weren’t in it to feel superior to other people. Now I have tarot cards too and it’s lit.
Syncretism is the term that explains this best. The Romans had a habit if not entirely crushing the beliefs of the people they conquered, they just stuck their own on top of the local beliefs and brought some of those traditions back to rome.
Fast forward a long ass time and now most everyone has a winter soltice festival.
I came to a lot of peace with my childhood when I came to the realization that Christianity was at it’s best when it was syncretist. The Christians who I was able to get along with as a kid were always the ones my parents said weren’t real Christians because they “denied the divinity of Jesus” by not being trinitarian. They always spoke very poorly of the western mystery traditions and it was easy to see their viewpoint because they’re both graduate degree engineers so of course it was only logical. Realistically the people they were talking shit about were the ones who actually understood the point and weren’t in it to feel superior to other people. Now I have tarot cards too and it’s lit.